Karma Anyone??

On Friday I was tired. It had been a long day. A long week, I daresay.
The only thing I wanted to do was go home.
The last thing I wanted to do was stand outside in the rain, on a shabby street corner where, I was pretty sure- a drug deal was unfolding before me. But after a plea for a house call from a young mom on the brink of tears with no transportation and four teething kids, there I was, against my better judgement.
What are the chances, I wondered, as I pulled into someone else's parking spot, that this person would come home at this precise moment?
Slim, I thought, pulling in.
The parking lot for the entire low income complex was vacant, completely vacant (note- low income people not prone to expensive cars. Or any cars.) Hence, I chose a spot at random and hurried inside.
I felt warm and fuzzy, despite the drizzling rain, to be going above and beyond the call of duty. To be helping out a young mom.
Sort of like Dr. Quin, the medicine woman. Parking my trusty steed outside and entering the building to impart my wisdom (well, mainly my infant Tylenol samples) to a damsel in distress.

That feeling was short lived.
I emerged from the complex mere moments later to find a beat up Thunderbird parked right behind me, and I mean right behind me. I mean- you could fit maybe a pencil between our bumpers.
Maybe.
I looked around. I thought briefly about going into the apartment, maybe ringing up Mr. Thunderbirds comlex, but then decided against it.
What was I thinking??
That he woud come down, apologize for the misunderstanding and move his vehicle?? When he was probably up there cursing about me right at that very moment, probably hoping for it to come to blows? When I'm in the middle of gang cenral? Being a white girl with a slight frame and a pair of keys for a weapon, I didn't like my odds. And besides that- if a beat up Thunderbird doesn't spell raging testosterone, I don't know what does.

So I spent several minutes inching my way out of there, sweating it the whole time.
Karma, you bitch, I thought. Where are you now?? I did a good deed, you should have my back!
That's the last time I decide to do a favor for someone else.

But then a few days later, I saw another client from work at Safeway. She smiled sheepishly at me, the way clients to when I see them out of context. She commented shyly "you have cute kids," remarking on my Payton and Alex.
And then, suddenly, I felt better.
I realized, truly, it doesn't take very much to make someone's day, or weekend. Or break it.
So pay it forward people, not backwards.